Time on ice was special for Natick's Bailey

For 36 seconds last Friday Justin Bailey lived a lifelong dream, taking the ice for Natick High during a varsity hockey game.

By Ian B. Murphy/Daily News staff

MetroWest Daily News, Framingham, MA

By Ian B. Murphy/Daily News staff

Posted Jan. 6, 2012 at 12:01 AM
Updated Jan 6, 2012 at 6:05 AM

By Ian B. Murphy/Daily News staff

Posted Jan. 6, 2012 at 12:01 AM
Updated Jan 6, 2012 at 6:05 AM

NATICK

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For 36 seconds last Friday Justin Bailey lived a lifelong dream, taking the ice for Natick High during a varsity hockey game.

But his first shift turned out to be his last. Bailey died unexpectedly of natural causes in his home on Wednesday, an hour before his team was set to take the ice again.

Bailey, a 17-year-old senior, was prepping for the team’s game against Needham. He had checked his equipment and taped his sticks, his father said, and went into the TV room to play video games for a bit.

“I went to get him when it was time to go, and I thought he was sleeping, and he wasn’t,” Ben Bailey said. “He was gone.”

Bailey had no known medical condition, his father said, and the cause of death has not been determined.

Justin Bailey had three passions: fishing, hockey and family.

“He pretty much played hockey year round,” his father said. “He grew up playing with his uncles, and his father and grandfather. He’d play anytime you let him.”

Bailey spent the last three years on junior varsity, and was rehabbing an ankle injury at the start of this season, his father said. His first shift came in the third period of a 4-1 loss to Franklin, but for Bailey it was special.

“It wasn’t much, but it meant the world to him,” said Bailey.

The team’s photographer captured Bailey on the ice, and he was so thrilled with the pictures he put them on his Facebook page and sent them to his mother while she was at work.

“We got a couple pictures of him, and he thought it was the greatest thing in a world,” said Natick High varsity hockey coach Karl Infanger. “Justin was just so proud of it. I think, as a coach, you kind of lose sight of the little things, and you don’t realize with some of these kids how much that really meant to them. For him, in his eyes, I think he felt like he made it, even if it was just for 36 seconds.”

His parents informed Infanger, and the game against Needham was called off on Wednesday. Natick High canceled all sports events yesterday out of respect for the Baileys; the boys and girls hockey teams canceled their weekend games as well.

Infanger said Bailey was a true team player who knew his role. Infanger said his lasting memory of Bailey will be a coaching meeting the two had on Tuesday.

“He looks at me, and said, ‘I know I shouldn’t be getting that much playing time. There are other players that are better than me. I just want to win, and I want to be a part of this team,’” Infanger said. “You hear it then, and you say, ‘He’s just a good kid. He’s a real team player.’ But then when you look at it in retrospect, you look at how special of an attitude that really is.

Page 2 of 2 - “Take every second you live, and every second you’re on the ice, and play it like it’s your last because you just never know.”

Bailey was just as unselfish away from the game of hockey. He loved his mother, Nicole, and his brothers Mason and Griffin, and spent most of his time with family.

“He babysat his cousins so his uncle and his aunt could go play hockey at least two or three times a week,” his father said. “He helped build a hockey rink in their front yard. He did whatever he could to help. He just wanted us to be happy.”

He worked during the summer and part time during the week for his uncle at JMH Automotive in Waltham. He talked about crewing a fishing boat after he graduated high school. While visiting family in Florida, he fished whenever he could.

The family donated Bailey’s organs at MetroWest Medical Center’s Leonard Morse Hospital, something his father said he would want to do.

The family doesn’t have details on a memorial service yet, but it will be at John Everett Funeral Home in Natick Center.

The boys and girls hockey teams have created a patch to wear on their uniforms in memory of Bailey. With their practices and games canceled yesterday, both teams met at Chase Ice Arena in Natick.

His teammates and friends declined to speak with a reporter, instead lacing up their skates to honor his memory by playing hockey.

(Ian B. Murphy can be reached at 508-626-3964 or imurphy@wickedlocal.com.)